When My Time Comes Around
by steelneena
Summary: A Collection of Constantine Drabbles(Includes lots and lots of Jim Corrigan/Spectre) All titles, unless otherwise mentioned, are lyrics from Hozier songs. Features JimJohn, Jim/Zed, Jim/John/Zed, John/Others, etc. crossposted at AO3 under the username steelneena
1. A Way to Face the Burning Heat

immediatly post Danse Vandou

With the success in the case, sending the murdering souls back to their rightful rest, Jim Corrigan thought that Constantine and his entourage might have headed for home immediately, wherever that was. With little ceremony, he'd made his way to a bar, though not the same one that had begun the whole debacle. So, it was a double surprise when, after receiving a stout he hadn't ordered, he turned to where the barkeep pointed to see John Constantine, sitting in a dark corner.

"Thanks for the brew," He muttered, sliding into the booth across from the other man. John nursed at his own stout.

"My pleasure, Corrigan," There was an intent gleam in his eyes, and it spooked the stalwart detective, but only a little.

"What do you want, Constantine?" He asked, retaliating with the use of his last name.

"Does a man have to want something to buy a mate a drink? What's the world come to?"

Jim laughed humourlessly at John's scathing wit, but warily sobered up when he noted that the Englishman was dead serious.

"I'm sorry you got pulled into all of this. You seem a nice fellow, and I hate to bother an upstanding gent. An honourable man like you, throwing in with a despicable like me?" He scoffed. "You've shown me more trust than some of my closest friends, and that's far more tha I deserve most days, Jim Corrigan," The honesty belayed in John's tone resonated deeply with the detective. It was the familiar pangs of self-loathing which stung him.

"You proved yourself worthy of it, at least for now. That's good enough for me,"

They were bent towards one another, leaning over the table, the result of their hushed tones in the crowded bar., when John leant forward an inch more. His lips touched to Jim's, if only for a moment, before he drew back, emotionally closing off.

Jim was speechless. John tasted like beer and ash and regret, all things Jim knew only too well. The air was charged, and on a whim, Jim lent towards the other man, and kissed him back. It was obvious that the put-out Constantine was too astounded by his reciprocation to return the gesture with any measure of gusto.

When Jim pulled away, John looked at him with a new light in his eyes. Inwardly, Jim smiled.

"Do you want to take a walk?" It was the first thing that came to the detective's mind. John took a drink from his glass, and lounged back against the booth cushion.

"Bit domestic, innit? A stroll?"

Jim shrugged. "Walks can be nice. They have lots of potential,"

"Alright then," John acquiesced after a beat. The two paid up tab and left, walking shoulder to shoulder in silence for several minutes, before John pulled the other man into an ally, threading his fingers into Jim's hair, and bringing their lips together in a heated kiss. Jim walked him backwards till John was back to the bricks, bodies pressed flush.

When they parted, both were panting heavily.

"You know, Jimmy-boy, I wasn't sure you'd go for this,"

"Another day, a different man, I might not have," John smiled crookedly at the comment.

"So I'm special, is tha'it?" He asked with a suggestive raise of his eyebrows. Jim chuckled, a deep rich sound.

"Don't get any ideas,"

"Oh but haven't you 'eard? I'm a right cheeky bastard,"

"I think I can handle it," At Jim's words, John grew serious.

"I 'ope you never have to," He muttered under his breath. Jim didn't question him, but as they exited the alleyway, and resumed their stroll, he found himself wondering, nervously, just exactly what John had meant, if he was, perhaps, getting himself into something far more dangerous than he'd expected.


	2. Cold Dark Earth

She went home with him that night. They kissed, and John saw, and Jim was going to die and She went home with him. They made tender love, and that was enough for her, that it was gentle, and precious. And Jim was going to die.  
Every time she touched him, she knew, closer, harder, more certainly, that was his fate. Every time they came together, bodies twining, breaths hitching in synchronicity, hands trailing and caressing, Zed felt his death. Each moment was a blessing and a curse. Each moment was the penultimate, holding life and death in it's time, simultaneously.  
She felt him try to lose himself in her, in the moments, his foreknowledge eating him alive.  
She felt his slipping control, felt their tears mingle on her skin as he worshiped her tenderly, and she him, alternately.  
In the night, while he dreamed, she twirled her fingers aimlessly on his chest, just below where her head was pillowed, listening to his heart beating, remembering John's face as he watched them kiss in the bar. A mask without emotion, with a screen of cigarette smoke.  
She could see the green aura around Jim in the darkness, but when she closed her eyes, there was nothing. Nothing but the grave.  
Zed lay awake.


	3. And She Put Her Love Down Soft and Sweet

For hisnameisbruno over on tumblr, who requested I write more Jim/Zed and include cuddles.

On weekends that they're free, Zed takes the truck down to see Jim. John, she knows, is jealous, but she puts it from mind, and tries only to leave when she knows that Chas'll be around to watch out for him.

One of these days, she thinks, she might convince Jim to invite John to join them. One day. Zed doesn't mind the drive, it gives her time to think, and the best part is her arrival.

Yes, the arrival, Zed thinks. Often, she'll get there at night, late enough that she's exhausted from the last case, and so is Jim, who stays up waiting for her with open arms and comforting silence. Sex between them isn't a must, and for that, Zed was immediately grateful. She lays in his arms, content and warm, the ticking of the clock and the beating of his heart are getting close to sending her to sleep. Jim takes a breath, and it's a hare deeper than the others had been. He brings a hand up to her untamed curls, tangling his fingers there in gentle security. Each synaptic moment reminds her that her vision, while still the future, isn't the present. He is hale and whole against her. Arms that wrap loosely around her tighten an imperceptible amount, and Jim drops a tenuous kiss to her hair. She exhales despite the indomitable fate which they face.

Zed has never known love, but she thinks that this is it.


	4. No shortage of sordid,no protest from me

made a reference to Oliver from Constantine:The Hellblazer 2015 comic

He remembered a time when the magic flowed through him as sweet and heady as the heroin had flowed through Garry Lester's veins. It was a nectar and he was hooked, violently high on his own arrogance, on the power he wielded without thought. A wrinkle here, a line there became a month here and a year there and by the time he'd come off that high, when he realized that he wasn't the big shit he thought he was...before the time that Newcastle rolled a round, and his stay at Ravenscar...  
He didn't want to count the years he'd wasted, the prices he'd paid.  
But he still felt the rush.  
Little hits, here and there, and lesser consequences.  
John took another swig of his stout, puffed his silk cut, and eyed the bear of a man behind the bar.  
Different substances alleviated his need.  
Different vices lined his lungs and his liver and his lips.


	5. Adding Shadows to the Walls of the Cave

Jim and Zed finally have their way with John.  
John pov  
vague sex+cuddles

It was the very last thing he'd ever expected. He'd high tailed it from the bar after their kiss and fully expected not to hear of it again. Jim and Zed...it was obvious after one weekend that they'd started up some form of relationship. And, John had concluded (he thought, reasonably) that he was no part of it. It was their relationship. Jim and Zed, with no room for him.

So, of course, it was the very last thing he'd ever expected.

Never saw it coming when Jim asked them down on another case.

Never saw it coming when he invited them to stay in his home.

Never saw it coming when he was shown to the guest room.

Never saw it coming even when, that night, before he could excuse himself to the often unsatisfactory release of sleep, Zed had placed a languid kiss to his lips, when Jim had come up behind him, kissed his neck and caressed his shoulder.

When they guided him to Jim's room.

Jim's bed.

When he woke up pleasantly sore, and sandwiched between firm lines and soft curves, it was still realized in confusion, only half believed until they simultaneously tightened their arms around him, legs tangled with his, begging for closeness with movements and gestures filled with the vestiges of sleep.

A brief respite in welcoming arms from the dreams and the guilt and the daily horrors yet to come.


End file.
